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    The Kingdom of Love
    The Kingdom of Love
    The Kingdom of Love
    Ebook146 pages1 hour

    The Kingdom of Love

    By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 25, 2013

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      Book preview

      The Kingdom of Love - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

      The Kingdom of Love, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

      The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Kingdom of Love, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Kingdom of Love

      and Other Poems

      Author: Ella Wheeler Wilcox

      Release Date: December 30, 2007 [eBook #3628]

      Language: English

      Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

      ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KINGDOM OF LOVE***

      Transcribed from the 1909 Gay and Hancock edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

      THE KINGDOM OF

      LOVE

      and other poems

      by

      ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

      GAY AND HANCOCK, LTD.

      12 & 13, HENRIETTA STREET, STRAND

      LONDON

      1909

      [All rights reserved]

      Contents:

      The Kingdom Of Love

      Meg’s Curse

      Solitude

      The Gossips

      Platonic

      Grandpa’s Christmas

      After The Engagement

      A Holiday

      False

      Two Sinners

      The Phantom Ball

      Words And Thoughts

      Wanted—A Little Girl

      The Suicide

      Now I Lay Me

      The Messenger

      A Servian Legend

      Peek-A-Boo

      The Falling Of Thrones

      Her Last Letter

      The Princess’s Finger-Nail

      A Baby In The House

      The Foolish Elm

      Robin’s Mistake

      New Year Resolve

      What We Want

      Breaking The Day In Two

      The Rape Of The Mist

      The Two Glasses

      The Maniac

      What Is Flirtation?

      Husband And Wife

      How Does Love Speak?

      Reincarnation

      As You Go Through Life

      How Salvator Won

      The Watcher

      How Will It Be?

      Memory’s River

      Love’s Way

      A Man’s Last Love

      The Lady And The Dame

      Confession

      A Married Coquette

      Forbidden Speech

      The Summer Girl

      The Ghost

      The Signboard

      A Man’s Repentance

      Aristarchus

      Dell And I

      About May

      Vanity Fair

      The Giddy Girl

      A Girl’s Autumn Reverie

      His Youth

      Under The Sheet

      A Pin

      The Coming Man

      THE KINGDOM OF LOVE

      In the dawn of the day when the sea and the earth

         Reflected the sunrise above,

      I set forth with a heart full of courage and mirth

         To seek for the Kingdom of Love.

      I asked of a Poet I met on the way

         Which cross-road would lead me aright;

      And he said "Follow me, and ere long you shall see

         Its glittering turrets of light."

      And soon in the distance a city shone fair.

         Look yonder, he said; How it gleams!

      But alas! for the hopes that were doomed to despair,

         It was only the Kingdom of Dreams.

      Then the next man I asked was a gay Cavalier,

         And he said: Follow me, follow me;

      And with laughter and song we went speeding along

         By the shores of Life’s beautiful sea.

      Then we came to a valley more tropical far

         Than the wonderful vale of Cashmere,

      And I saw from a bower a face like a flower

         Smile out on the gay Cavalier;

      And he said: "We have come to humanity’s goal:

         Here love and delight are intense."

      But alas and alas! for the hopes of my soul—

         It was only the Kingdom of Sense.

      As I journeyed more slowly I met on the road

         A coach with retainers behind;

      And they said: "Follow me, for our Lady’s abode

         Belongs in that realm, you will find."

      ’Twas a grand dame of fashion, a newly-made bride,

         I followed, encouraged and bold;

      But my hopes died away like the last gleams of day,

         For we came to the Kingdom of Gold.

      At the door of a cottage I asked a fair maid.

         I have heard of that realm, she replied;

      "But my feet never roam from the ‘Kingdom of Home,’

         So I know not the way," and she sighed.

      I looked on the cottage; how restful it seemed!

         And the maid was as fair as a dove.

      Great light glorified my soul as I cried:

         "Why, Home is the ‘Kingdom of Love’!"

      MEG’S CURSE

      The sun rode high in a cloudless sky

         Of a perfect summer morn.

      She stood and gazed out into the street,

         And wondered why she was born.

      On the topmost branch of a maple-tree

         That close by the window grew,

      A robin called to his mate enthralled:

         I love but you, but you, but you.

      A soft look came in her hardened face—

         She had not wept for years;

      But the robin’s trill, as some sounds will,

         Jarred open the door of tears.

      She thought of the old home far away;

         She heard the whr-r-r of the mill;

      She heard the turtle’s wild, sweet call,

         And the wail of the whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will.

      She saw again that dusty road

         Whence he came riding down;

      She smelled once more the flower she wore

         In the breast of her simple gown.

      Out on the new-mown meadow she heard

         Two blue-jays quarrel and fret,

      And the warning cry of a Phoebe bird

         More wet, more wet, more wet.

      With a blithe Hello to the men below

         Who were spreading the new-mown hay,

      The rider drew rein at her window-pane—

         How it all came back to-day!

      How young she was, and how fair she was;

         What innocence crowned her brow!

      The future seemed fair, for Love was there—

         And now—and now—and now.

      In a dingy glass on the wall near by

         She gazed on her faded face.

      "Well, Meg, I declare, what a beauty you are!

         She sneered, "What an angel of grace!

      Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

         What a thing of beauty and grace!"

      She reached out her arms with a moaning sob:

         Oh, if I could go back!

      Then, swift and strange, came a sudden change;

         Her brow grew hard and black.

      "A curse on the day and a curse on that man,

         And on all who are his," she cried;

      "May he starve and be cold, may he live to be old

         When all who loved him have died."

      Her wild voice frightened the robin away

         From the branch by the window-sill;

      And little he knew as away he flew,

         Of the memories stirred by his trill.

      He called to his mate on the grass below,

         Follow me, as he soared on high;

      And as mates have done since the world begun

         She followed, and asked not why.

      The dingy room seemed curtained with gloom;

         Meg shivered with nameless dread.

      The ghost of her youth and her murdered truth

         Seemed risen up from the dead.

      She hurried out into the noisy street,

         For the silence made her afraid;

      To flee from thought was all she sought,

         She cared

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